SCOTT NOVER, Slate; A.I. May Not Get a Chance to Kill Us if This Kills It First
"There is a disaster scenario for OpenAI and other companies funneling billions into A.I. models: If a court found that a company was liable for copyright infringement, it could completely halt the development of the offending model."
Kyle Jahner, Bloomberg Law; Writers Guild AI Deal Pushes Studios Down New Copyright Path
"Movie and television studios will have to monitor their use of AI in the script-writing process or face copyright complications following the recent deal with the screenwriters’ union.
Provisions restricting—in some scenarios banning—use of AI in content fed to writers are embedded among other aspects of the collective bargaining agreement with Hollywood studios ratified by Writers Guild of America members Monday, less than two weeks after governing boards of the writers’ union ended the nearly five-month strike. The WGA also secured the right to bar the use of writers’ material to train AI models."
Blog by Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO; Director's Blog: the latest from USPTO leadership
Latest updates on artificial intelligence and intellectual property
"Our AI/ET Partnership Meeting on September 27 this week explored the many ways that AI is shaping the work of both the USPTO and those who practice before us, along with the role of USPTO data in advancing state-of-the-art AI research and AI throughout the innovation economy. Attendees heard from a distinguished and diverse lineup of AI researchers, IP practitioners, USPTO technologists, and interagency partners. And our economists demonstrated some of our AI data and research initiatives.
Given the rapid adoption of AI, we are moving swiftly and carefully – including on patent examiner training. In our report, “Inventing AI: Tracing the diffusion of artificial intelligence with U.S. patents,” we found that AI is increasingly important for invention, diffusing broadly across technologies, inventors, organizations, and geography. For example, recently updated data from our report indicates that around 80,000 of our utility patent applications in 2020 involved artificial intelligence – over 150% higher than in 2002. AI now appears in more than 18% of all utility patent applications we receive. Illustrating AI’s rapid diffusion across fields, patents containing AI appeared in about 9% of all technologies examined by the USPTO in 1976, and spread to more than 50% by 2020. And, this data precedes what we have all seen in the past six months."
Edward Helmore , The Guardian ; An old master? No, it’s an image AI just knocked up … and it can’t be copyrighted
"Courts are now routinely referring to human authorship requirements under copyright law, including rejecting Kristina Kashtanova’s copyright claim for Zarya of the Dawn, a book “‘authored’ by non-human spiritual beings”. That ruling noted “it is not creations of divine beings” copyright is designed to protect.
Case law on the issue also now includes the rejection of a copyright lawsuit brought on behalf of a selfie-taking monkey. But in the Thaler case, Judge Beryl Howell did acknowledge that humanity is “approaching new frontiers in copyright” where artists will use AI as a tool to create new work."
U.S. Copyright Office, Issue No. 1021; U.S. Copyright Office Extends Deadline for Comments on Artificial Intelligence Notice of Inquiry
"The U.S. Copyright Office extended the deadline to submit comments in response to its August 30, 2023, notice of inquiry regarding artificial intelligence and copyright. The new deadlines will ensure that members of the public have sufficient time to prepare fulsome responses to the Office's questions so the Office can proceed with its inquiry with the benefit of a complete record of public input and feedback.
Initial written comments are now due by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Monday, October 30, 2023. Reply comments are now due by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday, November 29, 2023.
The Federal Register notice announcing this extension and additional information, including instructions for submitting comments, are available at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/artificial-intelligence/."
U.S. Copyright Office ; Copyright Office Issues Notice of Inquiry on Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
"Today, the U.S. Copyright Office issued a notice of inquiry (NOI) in the Federal Register on copyright and artificial intelligence (AI). The Office is undertaking a study of the copyright law and policy issues raised by generative AI and is assessing whether legislative or regulatory steps are warranted. The Office will use the record it assembles to advise Congress; inform its regulatory work; and offer information and resources to the public, courts, and other government entities considering these issues.
The NOI seeks factual information and views on a number of copyright issues raised by recent advances in generative AI. These issues include the use of copyrighted works to train AI models, the appropriate levels of transparency and disclosure with respect to the use of copyrighted works, the legal status of AI-generated outputs, and the appropriate treatment of AI-generated outputs that mimic personal attributes of human artists.
The NOI is an integral next step for the Office’s AI initiative, which was launched in early 2023. So far this year, the Office has held four public listening sessions and two webinars. This NOI builds on the feedback and questions the Office has received so far and seeks public input from the broadest audience to date in the initiative.
“We launched this initiative at the beginning of the year to focus on the increasingly complex issues raised by generative AI. This NOI and the public comments we will receive represent a critical next step,” said Shira Perlmutter, Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office. “We look forward to continuing to examine these issues of vital importance to the evolution of technology and the future of human creativity.”
Initial written comments are due by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday, October 18, 2023. Reply comments are due by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday, November 15, 2023. Instructions for submitting comments are available on the Office’s website. Commenters may choose which and how many questions to respond to in the NOI.
For more general information about the Copyright Office’s AI initiative, please visit our website."
"Artificial intelligence could help determine the verdicts of future court cases involving musical copyright, according to West Virginia University College of Law researchers.
Law student Angelyn Gemmen and Professor Sean Tu said they believe using AI to verify the originality of a piece of music would allow courts to stop relying on “a battle of the experts” and the human ear in cases of copyright infringement.
In an Innovate Magazine article, Gemmen and Tu explain how use of AI may have helped in a recent case involving singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. AI could have made the Sheeran musical copyright case more fact-driven, less biased and might have prevented litigation."
Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter; Studios’ Offer to Writers May Lead to AI-Created Scripts That Are Copyrightable
"But missing from the proposal, which was described as meeting the “priority concerns” of the guild, is how the studios need writers to exploit any work created by AI under existing copyright laws. That’s because works solely created by AI are not copyrightable. To be granted protection, a human would need to rewrite any AI-produced script...
By keeping AI on the table, the studios may be looking to capitalize on the intellectual property rights around works created by the tools. “If a human touches material created by generative AI, then the typical copyright protections will kick in,” a source close to the AMPTP says...
The studios may be looking toward producing of AI-generated scripts, but copyright protection is only possible for those works if they are revised by human writers. Material created solely by AI would enter the public domain upon release, potentially restricting opportunities for exploitation."
Nora Scheland, U.S. Copyright Office; Our Summer of Artificial Intelligence: Copyright Office Hosts Two Webinars on Copyright and AI
"Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a significant new focal point for the Copyright Office in 2023. The Office launched an AI initiativein mid-March, which was followed by four comprehensive listening sessions in April and May and then, most recently, by two very popular webinars in June and July.
The webinars, which continued to break attendance records for the Copyright Office, provided an opportunity for the Office to dive deeper into the copyright registration guidance for AI-generated works and perspectives on how AI impacts copyright systems both domestically and across the globe. The webinars were open to the public, and everyone from copyright experts to those curious about copyright could take something away.
The Office’s first webinar in June, Registration Guidance for Works Containing AI-generated Content, was hosted by Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Registration Policy and Practice Rob Kasunic and deputy director of registration policy and practice Erik Bertin. Kasunic and Bertin walked attendees through the Office’s registration guidance and discussed a variety of hypothetical examples of copyright registration claims featuring some amount of AI-generated content and how the Office would evaluate them. Through the detailed examples, Kasunic and Bertin offered key insights and recommendations for how applicants can navigate registration applications as they register their own creative works.
The webinar wrapped up with a moderated Q&A session. Attendees were encouraged to submit questions during the presentation, and we received nearly 250 questions by the end of the webinar. The attendance climbed to nearly 2,000 people over the 75-minute webinar, a new record for the Office.
If you missed the webinar on registration guidance in June, you can check out a full recording and transcript on our website.
The Office’s second webinar, International Copyright Issues and Artificial Intelligence, was hosted by Office of Policy and International Affairs attorneys and featured two hour-long panels with international copyright experts. Attendance at the second webinar also reached nearly 2,000 people, demonstrating the sustained excitement and curiosity concerning the global conversation around AI and copyright.
Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter provided opening remarks and explained why she thought this international conversation was integral to the Office’s AI initiative:
“We know that AI’s use and its impact are not bound by any national borders. . . . [G]overnments around the world are confronting similar legal and policy questions. . . . Looking at the global copyright landscape, several questions have begun to emerge. First, how do international copyright treaties apply to determining authorship and scope of subject matter protection and exceptions and limitations? Second, what actions are other countries or regions starting to take on AI and copyright issues? In what respects are these approaches similar to or different from ours in the United States? Can consensus approaches be found, and if so, through what mechanisms? And finally, to the extent there is divergence, what are the international implications?”
The first panel kicked off with four exciting presentations on developments in AI and copyright legislation and litigation outside the United States.
The second panel featured a lively moderated discussion on authorship, training, exceptions, and limitations of generative AI. The panel was moderated by two Copyright Office attorneys and comprised Jane Ginsburg from Columbia Law School, Andres Guadamuz from the University of Sussex, Bernt Hugenholtz from the University of Amsterdam, and Matthew Sag from Emory University School of Law. The panelists answered questions from the moderators and engaged directly with each other’s perspectives.
If you missed the webinar on international perspectives on copyright and AI in July, you can check out a full recording and transcript on our website.
The Office’s two webinars wrapped up a busy spring and summer season of listening, information gathering, and direct outreach on AI and copyright. Between April and July, nearly 8,000 people participated in or attended the Office’s AI listening sessions and webinars. This fall, the Office will receive public comments on a notice of inquiry as the work continues on our AI initiative. Follow copyright.gov/ai for updates and events, and sign up for email notifications on our website."
Nilay Patel,, The Verge; Google and YouTube are trying to have it both ways with AI and copyright
"There’s only one name that springs to mind when you think of the cutting edge in copyright law online: Frank Sinatra.
There’s nothing more important than making sure his estate — and his label, Universal Music Group — gets paid when people do AI versions of Ol’ Blue Eyes singing “Get Low” on YouTube, right? Even if that means creating an entirely new class of extralegal contractual royalties for big music labels just to protect the online dominance of your video platform while simultaneously insisting that training AI search results on books and news websites without paying anyone is permissible fair use? Right? Right?
This, broadly, is the position that Google is taking after announcing a deal with Universal Music Group yesterday “to develop an AI framework to help us work toward our common goals.” Google is signaling that it will pay off the music industry with special deals that create brand-new — and potentially devastating! — private intellectual property rights, while basically telling the rest of the web that the price of being indexed in Search is complete capitulation to allowing Google to scrape data for AI training."
, The New York Times; As Fight Over A.I. Artwork Unfolds, Judge Rejects Copyright Claim
"“Plaintiff can point to no case in which a court has recognized copyright in a work originating with a nonhuman,” Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in her decision on Friday, adding that “we are approaching new frontiers in copyright as artists put A.I. in their toolbox.”
Similar rules about “human authorship” have been used in deciding who owned a monkey’s selfie."
MATT GROWCOOT, PetaPixel; Photo Agencies Publish Open Letter Demanding AI Copyright Protection
"The world’s leading photo agencies and photographer associations have co-signed an open letter calling for legal protections against artificial intelligence (AI).
Getty Images, the Associated Press, Agence France-Press, the European Pressphoto Agency, and the National Press Photographers Association are among the organizations calling for intellectual property (IP) rights to be respected.
While praising generative AI technology and its potential benefits to society, the signees warn that a flood of synthetic content into the public sphere has the potential to undermine the public’s trust in the media."
KONNER MCINTIRE and JANAE BOWENS , KATU2ABC; Film and music industries on edge: AI's growing influence stirs fear of job displacement, copyright issues
"Currently, the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act provides some protection to musicians. It was made law in 2018 and helps to ensure musicians are fairly compensated by publishers.
The law directly addresses piracy which has cost artists billions of dollars.
Five years later, Congressional leaders, including Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.,who serves as the Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, are concerned the law will not protect musicians against AI.
“For Congress, we’re now looking at old challenges with new dangers, including the ever-present threat of piracy as well as artificial intelligence, which pose still unknown questions for intellectual property protection efforts even as they open doors to a new world of technological capability that is, at present, limitless,” the congressman recently wrote in an op-ed.“If we don’t get AI right, it could very well render not only the Music Modernization Act obsolete – but also the policy choices we make next.”"
CRAIG BOEHMAN, Make Use Of; Can You Copyright a Photograph of Your AI Art?
"So you've created an AI-generated artwork. You've used only prompts. And by law, you can't copyright it, so what do you do?
You take a picture of it!
By taking a picture of the work, not only do you own the copyright of the photo, but you also enjoy all the other protections of copyright, including the right to use your photo commercially."
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Washington Post; If artificial intelligence uses your work, it should pay you
"Renowned technologists and economists, including Jaron Lanier and E. Glen Weyl, have long argued that Big Tech should not be allowed to monetize people’s data without compensating them. This concept of “data dignity” was largely responding to the surveillance advertising business models of companies such as Google and Facebook, but Lanier and Weyl also pointed out, quite presciently, that the principle would only grow more vital as AI rose to prominence...
When I do a movie, and I sign my contract with a movie studio, I agree that the studio will own the copyright to the movie. Which feels fair and non-threatening. The studio paid to make the movie, so it should get to monetize the movie however it wants. But if I had known that by signing this contract and allowing the studio to be the movie’s sole copyright holder, I would then be allowing the studio to use that intellectual property as training data for an AI that would put me out of a job forever, I would never have signed that contract."
U.S. Copyright Office; International Copyright Issues and Artificial Intelligence
The United States is not alone in facing challenging questions about generative artificial intelligence and its implications for copyright law and policy. On July 26, 2023, join the Copyright Office for a discussion on global perspectives on copyright and AI. Leading international experts will discuss how other countries are approaching copyright questions including authorship, training, and exceptions and limitations. They will provide an overview of legislative developments in other regions and highlight possible areas of convergence and divergence.
This webinar is a part of the Copyright Office’s initiative to examine copyright law and policy issues raised by AI technology, including the scope of copyright in works generated using AI tools and the use of copyrighted materials in AI training. For more on copyright and AI, visit copyright.gov/ai.
Time: July 26, 2023, 11:00 a.m.- 1:00 p.m.
Speakers:
Melissa Heikkilä, MIT Technology Review; How judges, not politicians, could dictate America’s AI rules
"It’s becoming increasingly clear that courts, not politicians, will be the first to determine the limits on how AI is developed and used in the US."
Nathaniel Bach, Monica Kulkarni, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP , JD Supra; Five Takeaways From the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property’s AI and Copyright Hearing
"On July 12, 2023, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property held its second hearing on artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property (IP). The first hearing, held on June 7, 2023, focused on AI’s implications for patent law, while this second hearing centered on copyright issues. Hearing participants, both senators and witnesses, seemed to recognize that the industry needs to strike a balance between promoting AI innovation and protecting creators’ rights, particularly in the context of training generative AI models using data gathered from the Internet. While opinions on the means to achieve that end certainly differed across witnesses—who ranged from the head of public policy at Stability AI to a concept artist—the general consensus was that more clarity on the federal level regarding how to protect creators’ rights would be beneficial to stakeholders across the board...
Accordingly, the senators focused their questioning on mainly five topics, providing a glimpse of what potential federal legislation could look like:..."
Nora Scheland, Library of Congress, Copyright Creativity at Work; The Copyright Office Hears from Stakeholders on Important Issues with AI and Copyright
"Over the past two months, the Copyright Office hosted four public, virtual listening sessions on the use of artificial intelligence to generate creative works. The listening sessions focused on literary works, including print journalism and software; visual arts; audiovisual works, including video games; and music and sound recordings. Artists, creators, AI developers, researchers, lawyers, academics, and more shared their goals, concerns, and experiences related to the use and impact of generative AI.
As we look back on four vibrant sessions, we wanted to share some highlights for those who were not able to join live.
Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter opened the first listening session, on literary works, with a set of guiding questions for all four sessions: “How does current law apply? Should it be changed? [H]ow will the copyright community, from creators to users, be impacted?” She also reminded the audience that the Copyright Office plays a role “both in addressing practical concerns and in advising on policy.”
Following Register Perlmutter’s introductory remarks, participants spoke on two consecutive panels in which they articulated a wide-ranging set of perspectives.
The remaining listening sessions followed a similar format, and some included additional opportunities for comments without further discussion. Copyright Office staff moderated the listening sessions, and Associate Register of Copyrights and Director of Policy and International Affairs Maria Strong and General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights Suzy Wilson each made remarks.
At the final listening session, Register Perlmutter observed some of the themes of the series, including that
Throughout all four listening sessions, the Office heard from a broad and diverse group of stakeholders, experts, and creatives, including some who do not typically participate in Office roundtables. Among the speakers were a professor of computer and information science; several Academy Award-nominated artists; attorneys for major private actors, including tech companies and music streaming platforms; representatives from various unions, guilds, and trade groups; and independent visual artists, filmmakers, and composers.
The listening sessions broke registration and attendance records for Copyright Office events. Over 4,100 people tuned in over the course of the four sessions. In her final remarks, Register Perlmutter thanked all the panelists for sharing their insights and the public for tuning in. “The Office appreciates the high level of public engagement with these listening sessions,” said Register Perlmutter. “This interest is of course a reflection of the astonishing potential of artificial intelligence, and the impact that its already having in our lives and on society as a whole.”
The feedback and comments provided to the Office during the listening sessions will help guide the next steps in the Office’s AI initiative. The Office is drafting a notice of inquiry, to be published in the Federal Register later this summer, which will solicit written comments from the public on a wide range of issues involving AI and copyright. Issues raised during the sessions will directly inform the questions asked in the notice.
If you missed the listening sessions initially, or want to listen back again, you can review all the materials from each of the sessions on our website, including the agenda, transcript, and full video recording.
Follow copyright.gov/ai for updates, events, and to sign up for email notifications, including to learn when the notice of inquiry is published, on our website."
